Case Number 24216: Small Claims Court

Patriocracy

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All Rise...

Judge David Johnson is mad at his cat for its endorsement of the debt ceiling hike.

The Charge

Exploring the polarization in America that cripples our country's ability to
solve its most serious problems.

The Case

Full disclosure: I'm the kind of guy who thinks the more gridlocked Congress
is, the better we're all off. The makers of this documentary, on the other hand,
hold the view that if the two sides of the aisle could just buckle down and get
along, the political process would be a far more effective. Writer/director
Brian Malone endeavors to tease out the reasons for such far-reaching
polarization among the nation's populace and, by proxy, Congress.

To do this, he points his lens and narration at the big political highlights
of recent years: Obamacare, the debt ceiling debate, the Tea Party, No Labels,
Citizens United, and the President's fiscal commission. Who are the major
players? What are the entrenched interests? Why such friction? Malone
supplements this material with interviews from media personalities like Eleanor
Clift, Bob Schieffer, Pat Buchanan, and politicians / former politicians
including Senators Kent Conrad, Mark Warner, and congressmen from both
parties.

Two things that leapt out at me: 1) Despite the claims of objectivity,
Patriocracy is absolutely a left-leaning production; and 2) I'm unsure,
even after having viewed it, what Malone's point is.

About Point One, Malone lays the wood to Citizens United; features lots of
footage of Tea Partiers grousing about Obamacare (yet oddly doesn't include the
myriad Bush = Hitler protests that characterized much of the citizen activism
from 2002-2008); lauds amusing, but inconsequential stuff like Colbert and
Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity; and essentially traces our cultural rift to
Barry Goldwater and, by extension, Newt Gingrich and the Contract with America.
On the flip side, President Obama emerges unscathed, painted often as the great
Grand Bargainer.

Fine. Whatever. I have zero problem with a true blue political documentary,
but this release is framed as objective and fact-finding. Despite the inclusion
of liberal talking heads and websites as contributors to the problem, this
supposedly neutral production is transparently ideological. (Another example:
ousted Republican Congressman Bob Inglis gets much screen time and plenty of
opportunity to lament his loss in the primary at the hands of a Tea Party
candidate, but the dude got waxed by fifty points!!! Why do we care what he has
to say?).

I'm more flummoxed by Point Two. I'm not sure what Malone is going for here.
Does he want everyone to become moderates? Arguably, some of the most
successful, genuinely effective legislation like welfare reform was passed when
opposing parties occupied different branches of government and fought pretty
furiously against each other. But ideological uniformity has shown to yield
relatively little as well. The Democrats held all three branches with a
filibuster-proof majority just a few years ago, and couldn't pass a budget or
unleash the higher tax rates that Patriocracy appears to endorse.

So, what's the endgame? A smaller audience for cable news and blogs? More
Grand Bargains? I don't see it happening. The country is sharply divided on
cultural and political lines and the two parties espouse dramatic policy ideas.
These entrenched principles are often characterized as "far-left" or
"far-right," but I find that derogatory. These are genuine disagreements and the
way to hash them out in America hasn't changed: persuade your neighbor, then
drag your ass to your middle school and vote.